Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guest Post. Show all posts

Guest Post - Jennifer Louise Morgan

My father passed away two weeks ago so the blog has gone on a bit of a hiatus. Luckily my friends have provided me with some guest posts in my time of need. 


This next post comes from Jennifer Louise Morgan who had the pleasure of sharing a unit with me this semester. I teased her, annoyed her and generally made her wish she had never met me. Jen is an accomplished writer who has her own blog at Miss Jen and I really do encourage you to check it out. She also makes a superb Ramona Flowers.

Remember to thank Jen in the comments or by sending her positive Karma!

The real world says hello

Finishing university can be described as both a wonderful and terrible thing. It is something that all students have to face at one point or another (there is a limit to HECS after all). The strange thing is I haven’t given it a lot of thought until now.

For those of you who may not know me, I am Jono’s friend Jen. I have been asked to write a guest post for him while he is away (gaining his ultra secret super powers). There are many things I could tell you about myself, but I think the most relevant would be that I’m about to finish my degree.

The awful realisation is dawning on me that I will actually have to find a real job- that buying Harry Potter paraphernalia and watching 30 Rock will no longer be a valid way to spend my evenings. The fact that I am about to walk into a world where I can no longer use student concession scares me to no end.

Studying at Murdoch has been a fantastic, eye-opening experience for me. My degree has given me the room to learn, and explore all that I am genuinely interested in. I have met a diverse range of people, and made some good friends (Jono included).

I am comforted by the fact that I am now taking away invaluable skills, ones which I hopefully will be able to put to good use (besides my mad ninja skillz, they didn’t need much development).
If you hear about a local Perth girl in the next few months however, who has broken the record for eating the most chocolate, or claims she has successfully recreated all the spells in Harry Potter, you will know I have probably failed.

But then again, if Murdoch has taught me anything, it is about finding new life experiences.
Here’s hoping the real world is kind.

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Guest Post - Matthew Ledger

My father passed away last week and so the blog has temporarily gone on hiatus. Thankfully, in my time of need, some of my friends have come forth with excellent posts to keep you entertained. Hopefully we will resume regular service soon.


This first post comes from Matthew Ledger who I met in 2009. I had the pleasure of calling Matt a friend for the duration of his semester at Murdoch and am lucky to have the blog graced by his presence. Please thank Matt for this awesome post in the comments.


Hey there my Australian friends, former Murdoch uni student Matt Ledger here, providing a guest shot of blog-writing from the state of Wisconsin in the United States. We’ll return you to your regularly scheduled writer, Jonathan Gurney, the cutest ice cream eater in all the land, shortly but first I’d like to confess something to you all: I’m jealous of you. Super insanely jealous of you. Why you ask?

Because you, my friends, have all reached the end of another wonderful semester in Australia studying at Murdoch University while I am stuck with five weeks left to go til mega-massive-learning-death induced by final project overload. Meanwhile the temperature here continues to plummet like an all-too-revealing neckline, and the Sun keeps refusing to answer our calls. This is the time of year when I question what part of me thought it would ever be a good idea to leave Australia and Murdoch University. What do I miss most about uni studies in Perth? I’ll tell you:
  1. Study Breaks – Oh sweet, sweet study breaks, how I loved thee! Every four to five weeks students are granted a break from school which, although the professors say is for us to consolidate our studies, we all know is better used for week long vacations and leisure reading and sitting around in Fremantle eating far too much gelato. Back here in the States, most students are forced through fifteen straight weeks of study with a three day break at Thanksgiving which leaves just enough time to become stressed out about all the work we didn’t do while we were driving back and forth to see our families. The word break in “study break” doesn’t mean vacation in the U.S.; it’s what the professors hope to do to our spirits.
  2. Studying at the Beach – I know, I know. “Who actually gets studying done at the beach?” The fact is, I did. I did a lot of my class time reading on the beach shores in Fremantle, reading about the habits of criminal offenders while taking in the salt air (Side Note: I’d highly recommend taking Criminal Behaviour with Jaimie Zander if you can; she’s quite fun.) I wrote one of the short stories I’m most proud of up on the Roundhouse. The beach made studying bearable and oftentimes even enjoyable. Compare that to my now usual studying routine of taking refuge in the university library from the frigid outdoors and trying my best to find a window which lets in just the tiniest bit of light and you tell me which one is more conducive to retaining information about material.
  3. The People – This extends to just about everyone I met, be it professors, fellow students, or friends in the Village. While this may just be my memory glorifying my Australian experience, I cannot remember a single person that I met that I actively disliked. Not one. The fellow writers in my writing workshop, the actors and actresses I stage managed for, the people that I had to come back to my flat and live with each day, all of them were creative, welcoming, and kind. So much so that when given the chance to tell you about what I miss about my studies in Australia, these people were the first thing that came to mind. I chose to save them for last for dramatic effect though.
So there you have it, the reasons that I jealously hate each and every one of you reading this blog entry. I go now to either once again take to the Wisconsin outdoors and trudge my way to class or to surf over to Qantas air and buy the next ticket out of this dump. I really haven’t decided yet.

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Perth, WA, Australia
I live in Perth and this blog is about navigating that life in my own way.

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